Year 1

My first year of teaching my little 2nd grade monsters was a crazy year.  I owe a huge thank you to those who listened to my frustrations (even though I tried really hard to keep them to myself).  It was a year with disappointments that I wasn't able to keep up the steam to do things I wanted to, happiness when that one student finally had their lightbulb AHA! moment and got double-digit addition, and complete and utter joy watching 25 2nd graders love and respect each other.  I've never had so much fun seeing an entire class be such incredible friends as this one has.  They were a golden class.  Absolutely golden.  

May was a particularly hard month of teaching.  I was on the brink of tears until I read a sweet and utterly charming email from one of the mother's of my students.  She sincerely thanked me for lifting her daughter up to new heights and giving her confidence that she struggled to have before.  Then I went through previous emails and notes where another mom thanked me for helping her daughter know that it was okay to love herself and that she was beautiful.  Another student's mother started an email off with a big capitalized THANK YOU followed by many generous exclamation points and then went on to say that her son has never felt so loved or successful in a class than he had in mine.  It was in that moment that I realized (again!) that Heavenly Father put me in the right place, at the right time, to teach this particular bunch of kids.  I realized that in the form of letters, emails, notes, pictures, hugs, and tears that Heavenly Father had sent me little tender mercies to help me gain confidence in the one thing I've always wanted to succeed in.  And that's teaching.

And no, I'm not on a rampage to toot my own horn, but after reading the article, "The Hardest Job Everyone Thinks They Can Do," it made me so happy to have my gifts and talents.  I've always had a hard time seeing what I'm good at.  I'm a terrible socializer, completely awkward around other people at times, insecure about how I look, and seriously too sarcastic for my own good.  I've been striving to really put my heart and soul into my career.  And this year, I think I did a pretty good job (with many things in store for next year that I'm already working on fixing or adding to my classroom).  All of the 12-15 hour days were worth it.  No, my job is not glamorous.  Yes, I put on some serious poundage of body fat that is in the works right now of getting rid of.  Managing 25 kids at a time and making sure that they are learning at the highest level they can is difficult.  I feel so blessed and loved by these little monsters of mine and I can't wait to show my next batch of students how amazing, loved, and unique they are!

And because a blog post isn't a blog post without pictures....

The last week of school was spent having way too much fun for our own good.  Which included our very own MONSTER PARTY!

The goods set out on the table.

 A close up of the adorable tablecloth that was given to me by one of the many supermom's that helped out in our class.

And one of the cutest things I've ever seen...

Monster FINGER puppets!

Darling and oh so cute.

But, alas, I can't take credit for finding these beauties.  

Becky, thank you for the wonderful gift of Monster party decor.

And because I get amazing ideas for class parties the night before the big event (see this post) I made Jello Cookies.  They are bright, colorful, and full of sugar.  Any kid's dream and any parent's nightmare.  Good thing that sweets and treats are a rare occurrence in my classroom unless it's for a hands-on lesson.  But aren't they soooo cute?!

And because the aforementioned cookies gave T and I a serious sugar rush by just eating half  of one, I made up these cute thank you's for our office aides so I wouldn't throw up eat them all.  

At least they look good enough to eat. 

For a child, yes.

An adult?  I'd suggest eating sparingly.
Like a bite a week when your blood sugar gets low.

And to top off our Monster Party, we watched Monsters, Inc.!  My students got to bring their birthday monsters that they received throughout the year on their birthdays and we had a big pajama Monster party while we watched this movie.  I was seriously thinking about not giving out Birthday Monsters next year, but when I asked what their favorite part of the year was, it was a unanimous Birthday Monsters! answer from all of my students.  How can you get rid of their favorite thing?  Needless to say, I'm currently working on making the next batch of 35 monsters for next year.

Call me crazy.

The last day of school was hard.  Harder than I thought it would be.  I bawled once I shut my door and all of my monsters were gone.  Some will be moving to Hawaii.  Another to Australia.  And some to different states.  I may never see their adorable little faces again.  I seriously sat on the carpet while staring and crying at the sight of my empty classroom.  

Hardest day ever.

But it was an incredibly fulfilling, enriching, and utterly fun year!